Olympic goalie to visit area

Guest trainer at performance camp

March 16, 2014

KINGSFORD - Former Winter Olympic hockey goaltender Chanda Gunn will be a guest trainer at the Dickinson County Elite Performance Sports Training Camp this summer.

She is tentatively scheduled to assist the first week in August. The Elite Performance Sports Training Camp is anticipating over 200 local male and female high school athletes.

Gunn, a U.S. women's hockey Olympic medalist, has successfully battled epilepsy for most of her life. She will be assisting the staff of athletic trainers and physical therapists at the Dickinson County Sports Training Camp.

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Gunn will also address the athletes on overcoming many challenges, in her case epilepsy, to become a medal winning Olympic athlete. Her passions are proper nutrition and supporting the Epilepsy Foundation.

While in town, she will also be giving an evening presentation on nutrition and epilepsy at the Back in Motion Clinic in Kingsford. The discussion will be open to anyone interested in meeting Gunn, and hearing about her journey, and learning about proper nutrition.

As goaltender, Gunn played college hockey at Northeastern University where she was a three-time finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the nation's top college hockey player, and a three-time finalist for the NCAA Female Sportsmanship and NCAA Humanitarian Award, the only person ever to be considered for all three awards.

In 2004, she was given the College Hockey Humanitarian Award.

Gunn played for the U.S. at the 2005 Four Nations Cup and helped them win a gold medal at the 2005 World Championship.

Gunn started her college career at the University of Wisconsin but left in the middle of her freshman year to help deal with her epilepsy, a disease she has had since she was nine years old.

She serves as a spokesperson for the Epilepsy Therapy Project, and often speaks to children's groups for kids with the disease. She has worked as a goaltending coach at Northeastern and continued to play through 2009, being one of the final cuts for the 2010 U.S. women's hockey team.

Gunn is currently raising funds for the National Walk for Epilepsy taking place on March 22, 2014, in Washington, D.C. Her goal is to raise $5,000 before the walk.

Gunn said without the support of the Epilepsy Therapy Project, she would not have participated in the Olympics, would not be married, would not have children, would not be driving, and would not be employed.

"There is no doubt in my mind I wouldn't be able to do this without the Epilepsy Foundation and the Epilepsy Therapy Project," she said.